Storytelling in the world of the Sims

Get Ready for Season 9

{SPOILER ALERT: This is an end of season review and it discusses some of the events leading up to season 9)

So far, I have written the first four episodes of season 9 and I have scheduled publishing to start next Saturday April 1st. As I had tried to do in season 8, I plan to publish an episode of The History of Twin Bayous (THOTB) every Saturday and Wednesday along with episodes of “The Bloodsucker Journals” (TBJ).

Now, I would like to take this opportunity do a little review of where we are and how we got here.

During the life of this story blog, I have published three stories: Story 8, Story Zero, and THOTB.

Since the end of Story Zero and the start of THOTB these two stories have been tied together. Story Zero abruptly ended with: One afternoon Mihai was browsing the web when he discovered that the entire History of Twin Bayous was on-line. It was crazy cold outside so he decided that he would just stay inside and read…

From that perspective, the History of Twin Bayous is a fictional story in the universe of Story Zero and consequently the same could be said of Story 8.

Recently in season 8 of THOTB, it was revealed that Story 8 and THOTB resided within the same multiverse and a character from Story 8 came to reside within THOTB through mysterious means.

This Story 8 character is Mihail LeFey, the love child of Michael Dutranoit and Raquel LeFey. He and his girlfriend, Kathrine Gilliland had escaped from Universe-3 just before it was presumably doomed for destruction and from there they traveled to Universe-4. Their escape occurred in S8P3: Episode XXIX

Later in part 4 of S8, Mihai had become unhappy with life in Universe-4 because he had lost his supernatural powers. One day he found by accident a portal that led into another dimension. (cf. S8P4: Episode VII)

It is at this point that the timelines of S8 and THOTB have come to intersect. Instead of the events of S8P4: Episode VIII and beyond, Mihail had entered the alternate universe of THOTB in season 8: episode 16. Because those following events presumably never happened, for example the birth of Brie LeFey, Mihail was confused in episode 8.22 when Dobbs mentioned Mihai having children.

I needed to do this because it always troubled me that I allowed to story 8 to suddenly end at S8P5: Episode XVII. Now through a device known as “Retroactive Continuity” or retconning, the explanation for the abrupt end is an event that will be coming up in season 9. Of course, that is all a can say on that subject.

Mihail’s accidental appearance in THOTB caused a dilemma for Dobbs James Dobbs as he thought that it was his fault that Kathrine was “lost”. In effect, Kathrine was not “lost”. It was just that Mihail did not know how to contact her. Yet, he did appreciate Dobbs’ offer of help.

The help that Mihail expected did rely on Wendy Dobbs and her supernatural abilities. Mihail needed a portal that would allow him to make a pinpoint entry into Story 8.

Up until now portals had been random as witnessed by the troubles that Mihail’s mother, Raquel LeFey, experienced throughout much of part 3 of Story 8.

Wendy did promise to help Mihail, however she had other priorities that she was focused on. Wendy’s mysterious plans were unknown to everyone including her husband, Dobbs.

I had been wanting to bring all three stories together for some time and season eight was the right time.

Another thing that I have been wanting to do for some time is to move the clock forward. When THOTB started with seasons 0, 1, and 2, the year was 1893 (Anno Simulacra). In that year, Veronica “Ronnie” Ringwald and her friends were having birthday parties and transitioning from childhood to teen. (s2-1)

At the end of season 2 (s2-32), the year was 1916 and Arnold Poindexter had just returned from a mysterious trip that he had made to the Source. It was at the beginning of season 8, that Dobbs James Dobbs also made a mysterious trip to the Source and it was from the Source that he transitioned into the dimension where the current timeline of our story resides.

Ronnie’s daughter, Jamie Stoney (b. 1905) has been around almost since the beginning of the series and she first appeared in s2/ep17 . Then in episode 24, she aged up to teen.

Season 3 covered a ten-year period. When the season began, the year was 1920 and when it ended it was 1930.

During the period covered in season 3, Jamie dated Sawyer Clemens. They broke-up when Jamie learned that Sawyer had cheated on her with another girl.

Sawyer’s parents and Jamie’s parents planned for Sawyer and Jamie to marry in order to bring the two wealthiest families in TB together. To keep her parents happy, Jamie introduced her little sister to Sawyer.

Rochelle and Sawyer married, but Jamie and her aunt Xena worked hard to keep Sawyer’s mother, Donna Gentile Clemens from getting her hands on the Ringwald family’s business.

Yet, Donna eventually inherited her father’s fortune which might have gone instead to Jamie had it not been for Jamie unfortunate “accident”.

At the start of season 4, the year was 1940. Jamie was single and second in charge of the movie studio that her grandfather founded. She was not entirely happy with her life. Jamie had always been a good girl, but it seemed to her that being good had never really paid off for her.

While doing research for a screen-play, Jamie learned of the existence of a mystical book known as the “Grimoire of Morgan LeFey.” Later she learned that the book had been sold to the owner of the town’s bookstore, Gregg Gentille. (Sawyer’s grandfather)

Gregg was a widower in his 90s. Jamie’s plan was to marry Gregg and then acquire the book for her own use. However, she ran into some trouble when one of Gregg’s sons confronted her.

Still she continued with her plan to marry Gregg and unfortunately shortly after they married, Jamie’s husband accidently shot and killed her. (s4/e17) The year was 1942.

For 12 years, Jamie was a ghost who haunted an empty house. Then in 1955 a family moved into the house. The eldest son of the family was a teen and one night he discovered Jamie inside a hidden room where she was standing guard over the Grimoire (s5/e4).

The boy was named Michael Dutranoy and he was dating Jamie’s niece, Carina Clemens.

As a ghost, Jamie could study the Grimoire, but she was incapable of putting any of her knowledge to practice. She became Michael’s mentor and guided him through his studies of the Grimoire that lasted for 12 years. When season 5 ended, the year was 1968.

When season 6 began, the year was 1973 and throughout the years of this season, Jamie was in hibernation – appearing only occasionally when Michael needed her. It was not until the late seventies when Dobbs James Dobbs came to the Dutranoy home and stole the grimoire along with Jamie’s urn, that Jamie woke-up from her hibernation. The year was 1979.

During her years in hibernation, Jamie learned of way that she could be made to come back to life. Contacted by the ghost of Gregg Gentille, Jamie was told that if she gave up the grimoire she would receive in exchange a magical lamp. The lamp contained a genie and with the help of a living person, she could be wished back to life.

Needing a living person, Jamie made up a story and enlisted the aid of Dobbs James Dobbs. Dobbs gave up the grimoire and using the magical lamp he wished that Jamie would be alive again.

The lie that Jamie told Dobbs was that he was in danger of punishment for having stolen the grimoire and that unless he performed a series of tasks he would be put to death. Those tasks took the pair to China and for nearly a year, Dobbs and Jamie raided a number of tombs. At the end of season seven, Dobbs and Jamie were now in France and it was while in France that Dobbs discovered that he had made a mistake – a mistake that he could only solve by returning to Twin Bayous to collect one of the relics that he had left there.

Not wanting Dobbs to go back to Twin Bayous, it was at this point that Jamie confessed as to what she had done. Dobbs had confused Jamie’s confession of having tricked him as a confession of guilt regarding a more serious crime.

Yet, instead of staying in France, Dobbs left Jamie there and returned to Twin Bayous. He did so to protect Jamie, believing that she had committed an actual crime – of having murdered her husband and not the other way around. His original plan was to go back to France and bring her back to TB. Yet the story of season 8 did not turn out for Dobbs as he had planned.

Now Dobbs, Jamie, and Mihail are all in the same “universe. Jamie is not quite sure how she got “there” (here?). One day while in France she saw an advert for a cruise ship where one of the stops on the line was the town of Twin Bayous, Louiesimania. She had never heard of cruise ships stopping in TB. Tired of waiting for Dobbs to return, Jamie decided to buy a ticket on the cruise. One week after boarding the ship, the cruise ship stopped in TB. The events of season 8 all took place in the year 1980.

So, as you can see between the end of season 5 and the end of season 8, the History of Twin Bayous has been stuck in the 70s. For some time now I have been searching for a way to move the clock forward on this story.

Now, going back and reviewing Jamie Stoney’s history has given me the idea on how to get the clock ticking once again.

Uffda: Interjection signifying exhaustion, weariness, resignation, or overwhelm, especially used by those of Norwegian descent; see 'oofda'. (The Norwegian-American slang equivalent of the Yiddish term oy.) Black: Me